Elegy (Elehiya)

by Loy Arcenas

narrative film, 2022, 94 minutes

Celine, a grieving widow returns to her estranged husband’s family’s island estate to scatter his ashes and claim her inheritance. The once idyllic island is now mired in poverty, squalor, and decadence. Celine’s return to the de Miranda’s crumbling estate opens old wounds. She becomes obsessed with Jasper, rumored to be Paeng’s son by one of the estate’s servants. She pursues him around doggedly, telling him that he is the child that Paeng never gave her, promising him a share of Paeng’s estate. But the boy is devoted and protective of his mother, Vilma, an island beauty who has the mind of a child. He is full of rage and rejects Celine’s advances. Her envy of the strong mother and son bond makes her hatch a plan to destroy that bond, which leads to tragic consequences.